WNAMM09: Blackbox Recorder

A multi-track capturing device from the man behind SADiE 15/01/09

Almost a year after relinquishing the reins at SADiE, the company he founded two
decades ago, Joe Bull, former managing director of Studio Audio & Video Limited, is
back in the music scene. His new company, JoeCo Limited â€“
is previewing their new Blackbox Recorder
product at The NAMM Show.
The Blackbox Recorder is a high performance multi-track capturing device
designed for the 21st century. Aimed primarily at the live music market, it records 24
channels of hi-res audio directly to a USB2 drive. It can be plugged directly into the
insert points on any console and can also provide Virtual Sound Checking facilities.
Recording to standard external USB2 disks formatted with FAT32 (as can be bought
almost anywhere nowadays) in Broadcast WAV file format (BWAV), any material can
be instantly used in a studio Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) without any need for
time-consuming file conversions or transfers.
Providing 24 channels of 24bit/96kHz recording in a 1U box, the Blackbox Recorder extensive synchronisation facilities and a keyboard interface via
which you can easily rename recordings before using them in your workstation.
Clocks can be synchronised to an incoming AES/EBU or SPDIF clock signal whilst LTC
(Linear Time Code) can provide recordings with a time stamp from other equipment.
In addition, the MIDI input can serve both for synchronisation (MTC) and MIDI
machine control (MMC) purposes. The unit can accept 9-pin commands as well
utilising the standard Sony PII protocol. A footswitch can be connected to the unit to
easily mark the intervals between songs in a live set creating separate recordings for
each song.
A headphone output allows for individual monitoring of each input and can provide a
rough "mixed" output for confidence checking. Eight of the analogue inputs are
looped through to auxillary insert points allowing external equipment to be placed
into the live signal chain.
Physically, the Blackbox Recorder is housed in a 1U rack-mounted box with
24 channels of metering and a full colour LCD display. The front panel touch sensitive controls are supplemented by a data wheel which doubles as a scrub wheel
when locating material for playback. The user interface has been designed for
ultimate simplicity allowing the live engineer to concentrate on the live mix secure in
the knowledge that the Blackbox Recorder is capturing the performance.
Joe Bull, managing
director of JoeCo, had this to say, "For many bands, taking a complete workstation on the road is not practical and
laptops can be notoriously fragile in the live environment. The Blackbox Recorder has been designed to address
these issues by making it robust, rugged and very simple to use. It's ready to record
within seconds of power up and being able to use the material immediately in your
DAW afterwards saves so much time."
Pricing and Availability:
The Blackbox Recorder is now undergoing extensive field tests and is
expected to be available from April 09.
More information: